Page 457 of Dark Love

“Dahl.”

“Don’t glare at me like that. I’m not saying it again.”

“I’ve had a long day, and I’m holding onto my patience with a frayed thread.”

“And whose fault is that?” Maybe a little of mine, but we’ll ignore those pesky details. “We had beautiful plans. Plans that involved cuddling all day in bed while reading books and eating junk food…”

Vex raises an eyebrow.

“…or semi junk food mixed with lots and lots of vegetables and protein.”

His lips tip up slightly.

“But then you had to disappear mysteriously to do super-secret, slightly dangerous things all day. And after I cleaned the house a half-dozen times, I had to do something.”

“You had to do something.” His voice gets that scary low tone.

That should scare me. “Yes. I had to do something.”

“And that something included baking cookies for another man?”

When he says it like that, it sounds way worse than it is. “I made ‘slightly less embarrassing help me cookies’.”

Vex blinks. Then blinks again as his hands ball into fists. “What does that even mean?”

Can Vex not understand the English language when he’s upset? I was pretty clear in my explanation. “Caramel pecan clusters on butter cookies are ‘help me cookies’, but I was really embarrassed to ask Max, so I soaked the pecans in bourbon with the intention of getting him drunk. Therefore, it would be slightly less embarrassing if he didn’t remember.”

Vex takes a deep breath, holds it for a long moment, and then lets it out slowly. “How did Max help you?”

Nope. Nope. Telling him that now would be a really bad idea. I’d get in even deeper trouble. “You know what? This is all your fault. I’m never in trouble. But whenever I’m with you, you think I’m trouble.”

“That’s because you are trouble. But what you aren’t doing is distracting me. What did you ask Vincenti to help you with?”

“It’s too embarrassing.”

One second, I’m standing by the refrigerator. The next, my butt is on the bar and I’m staring into Vex’s eyes with barely a millimeter between us.

“We’re going to have this conversation again. And this time you’re going to hear me.”

I shake my head at him, making my hair fly out of my loose bun.

“Dahl.”

“No. I can’t.”

“Nothing you can say will embarrass me.”

His finger trails up my face and loops a strand of hair behind my ear. If I wasn’t sitting down, I would have fallen down. “But I would be.”

“Dahl.”

“It’s too hard. I don’t deal with embarrassment well.” Most times I shut down and hole up in my room.

“That’s becoming pretty clear. But you love me, and that means sharing the good and the bad, knowing I won’t judge you.”

Oh really? “Then why did you almost kill Max out there?”

“If I wanted to kill Vincenti, he would already be dead.”

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